Karnataka BJP rebuffs attempts to bring Yeddyurappa back

Bangalore, June 6 (IANS) The BJP's Karnataka unit Thursday pulled up a section of its members for making moves to get the party's former leader B.S. Yeddyurappa back into the fold.

The state unit president Pralhad Joshi warned of action against party members making such attempts. The warning followed reports that party legislator G. Madhusudhan has written to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central leaders urging them to bring the former chief minister back to the party.

Without naming Madhusudhan, Joshi said at a party meet here that "writing a letter to BJP president Rajnath Singh was a big mistake and the party will initiate disciplinary action against him".

He advised party members to desist from writing to central leaders and first discuss all issues with the state leaders like himself and former chief ministers D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar.

Madhusudhan, a member of the legislative council and loyalist of Yeddyurappa, is reported to have written to Rajnath Singh and other senior party leaders to get the former leader back to the party ahead of the Lok Sabha election due in a year.

Yeddyurappa, the BJP's first chief minister in the state, quit the party to head Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) to contest the May 5 assembly elections which threw out BJP from power after one term.

Though the KJP won just six seats, including Yeddyurappa's, in the election, it is believed to have spoiled BJP's chances in around 25 seats.

The BJP won just 40 seats in the 225-member assembly as against 110 it had in the 2008 election to come to power in the state for the first time.

The election brought the Congress back to power on its own after nine years.